changed
by strikelight angel
Summary: How did Kakashi changed from a stoic and ruleobsessed personality to one who is not only never punctual but read a book like come come paradise? tribute to kakashi fans. Please R & R


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliates.

**A/N: **This is my first attempt on a Naruto fiction. Hope you readers will like it. Please read and enjoy.

**Changed**

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As usual, Kakashi, clad in his typical jounin uniform, stood alone in front of the memorial stone that held the name of numerous courageous shinobis who had lost their lives during their missions. These shinobis were hailed as heroes who had selflessly braved their lives in order to succeed their respective missions. And among the names which were elegantly carved into the memorial stone, one of them belong to Kakashi's best friend. Kakashi'd fingers gently traced the names on the gray robust stone until he reached the name of the person he had become a team with since he can remember.

-------------------------------------------------------**_Uchiha Obito_**---------------------------------------------------

His figure looked strangely forlorn, as with his other hand, he placed a white flower on top of the memorial stone. Even with his trademark black mask covering his face, he could feel the wind caressing his feature lightly, as though trying to lessen his cruel loneliness. Without warning, a sudden, searing pain tore through him mercilessly as he thought of how his best friend had altruistically sacrificed himself to save him, causing him to reach out for the tombstone to steady himself before retaining his composure. Even after so many years, the pain, the ache and the anguish was still there, deep within him. Just like some things will never change, Kakashi knew that the sorrow will never waver in his heart. Kakashi had long moved on from _that_ incident, just as everyone had to move on with their lives, and so did Kakashi, who had even come to become a respectable and prominent shinobi with countless great accomplishments to his name . Indeed, from his cheerful disposition and jovial attitude, his current and present stance showed just how much he had changed and moved on from his tragic and heartrending past. Not to mention, the book "**_Come Come Paradise_**" which he was always seen with, actually gave him a perverted, and almost humorous outlook, which he knew would never surface had he remained the same as his former stoic and rule-obsessed personality.

However, whenever he stood in front of this memorial stone, he felt as though he was back to the time when he first stood in front of it, and he was always standing on the exact spot which he stood on that day. It was like time had come to a standstill at this precise position just for him. He always stood here alone whenever he had time to spare, or when he just came back from missions, staring at the tombstone blankly. It was his own way of expressing his grief and thanks to his fallen comrade cum best friend. Grief for his absence from his life, while thanks to him for making him the person he was presently. At first, he wanted to tell Obito about his current life, and what happened during his missions and how he now had three genin students to take care of. Then again, he remembered what Obito had told him before he died.

"_This is my present to you, for becoming a great jounin."_

"_Take it, from now on, I'll be your left eye. In future, I'll see the world together with you through this eye"_

And Kakashi felt acutely sure that words was unnecessary and unneeded. Obito was seeing everything through his left eye, so he knew whatever he was about to convey anyway. He was an inevitable part of him now, and would always be. This eye was also part of the reason of his immense fame and reputation.

_Sharingan no Kakashi or Copy ninja Kakashi_

Those were now his nicknames. That was what he was known as now, thanks to Obito. Indeed, he had no trouble remembering how his attitude and perspective had changed since then. During their next mission, in which the team were only comprised of him, Rin and his sensei (no new members were added to replaced Obito as both Kakashi and Arashi were jounin), he had unintentionally turned up late for their meeting to discuss their next mission as he had inadvertently lost track of time while praying at the memorial stone. He remembered being so shocked and astounded with himself when he realized he was late, keeping Arashi sensei and Rin waiting for him for at least _an hour_. He had apologized profusely, as though being late was an unpardonable crime that warranted capital punishments. Both Arashi sensei and Rin had found him extremely amusing.

However, it was not long before it started to become a habit, he was not only late at team and jounin meetings, but also for almost everything else. At first, the tendency of him to arrive late were _truly _unintended, he himself just could not comprehend why he kept losing track of time, no matter what he was doing (whether he was training alone or just drifting off). But he had always been perfectly timed before this, the immaculate Hatake Kakashi, whose vocabulary did not consist of the word "_late_". If it was not because of Kakashi's personality as a strict, stringent and austere figure, those he had kept waiting would have most likely thought he was trying to play a lame prank on them. But , luckily for Kakashi, they knew that he was a person who would not play a prank even for his life.

Nonetheless, as time went on, Kakashi found that he actually like being like this. He felt more relax, and less stress with this change of personality. He still could not completely part with all his old habits yet. However, he had undoubtedly changed in an inexplicable way. It only hit him when Rin come up with a casual comment.

" _You know, Kakashi?", said Rin suddenly during one of mission._

"_What?", asked Kakashi, who was feeling uneasy and angry with his strange behavior lately. Just the day before, he was late for a jounin meeting chaired by the **hokage** himself!_

"_Somehow, I'm seeing a shadow of Obito inside you", said Rin, which successfully halted Kakashi's train of thoughts. "And I really like the way you're now. Seeing you like this makes me feel that Obito is still with us, living within you"_

_Kakashi looked up in genuine surprise. He did not know how to response to Rin's comment on him. But before he could said anything, Rin continued._

"_Therefore, I just want to tell you, it's ok to remain like this. There's no need to feel confused or force yourself to be different from who you **truly** are. This is the REAL you, which has always been lying dormant within the façade you conjured up for yourself. And Obito is gradually destroying that "facade""_

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From then on, Kakashi had no qualms about himself anymore, and he began to act as he felt like it. And this, of course, did not bode well for everyone. Those who had to wait hours for him not only had to tolerate his inability to be punctual, but worse of all, they had to put up with his impossibly lame and feeble excuses. And when someone pointed that out to him, he merely smiled at them (which was obvious despite his mask), which achieved nothing but infuriating them further.

A gentle smile graced Kakashi's feature, as he thought of the first time Rin and Arashi sensei had yelled at him. Both of them were the most tolerable of Kakashi's attitude change, as they generally preferred a Kakashi that was able to smile and joke (despite poor ones) than a Kakashi who was so obsessed with rules and regulations that he could not see the joke even if a woman striped right in front of him. However, it was also the last straw for them when they were kept waiting for more than 3 hours for him during one mission which were assigned to them. They were supposed to meet at the village gate to take off to the hidden sand village for some political reasons. And when Kakashi finally arrived, he was greeted by a yelling Rin and a twitching Arashi, a clear sign that he was seriously pissed off. This warned Kakashi of the imminent danger, as he knew Arashi sensei was rarely mad, and especially not at him.

Therefore, Kakashi had told them the authentic reason why he was late. He was browsing through some novels in a bookstore when he came across this "great and well written" novel. He decided to merely take a peek at it. However, he had become hooked with it and had lost track of time until the shopkeeper told him to either buy the book or get the hell out of there. Interested, Rin had asked him what novel was that, as everyone who knew Kakashi knew that the books he ever read were of those extremely boring ones, such as those of factual and historical ones. Kakashi immediately blushed and told her that she would not be interested, but this only fueled Rin's curiosity. Rin had insisted on looking at the book and had actually wrestled it out of Kakashi's weapon pouch! Both Arashi sensei and Rin took a quick peek, and both displayed an array of reactions. Arashi sensei had looked shell shocked (ath the fact that his most serious and humorless student would buy such a book) and began blushing furiously, while trying to hide his interest in the book. However, Kakashi did not need his sharingan to detect it. As for Rin, well, she merely recoiled and then shoved the book crossly into Kakashi's face, with so much strength that she gave him a nosebleed. Looking peeved, she called him a damn pervert and said men were all hopeless. That was (as you can all guess) the first trilogy of the "_Come come Paradise_" series.

Coming out of his reminiscence, Kakashi smiled to himself as he thought of those cherished memories. Looking at his watch, a smirk slowly crept into his solitary feature again.

"Well, looks like I had kept them waiting long enough, time to go then. Let's see, what reason should I give this time?"

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Elsewhere, three exceedingly peeved and annoyed genins stood waiting for their sensei to show up, their countenances registered their murderous intent to make the said person suffered their wraths when he came.

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Well, that's all then. Hope you all like it.

And finally, please read and review. Even a word or a short sentence are very much appreciated.


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